Summer 2011 Switzerland 3

After a fantastic stay in Zermatt, our next stop was Montreux at the head of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and a night in Glion before heading to Geneva itself.

Lake Geneva at Montreux

The head of Lake Geneva from Glion.

Moving on to Geneva after a short train ride from Montreux saw us with plenty of time to explore the waterfront. The Summer Festival was in full swing with several kilometres along the lake side set up with numerous rides, food stalls and entertainment.

What we didn't know was that the festival ended the next day with a fireworks display. There  were around 24 barges ready to be deployed on the lake.

Fireworks ready to go

The water jet is gravity fed from up in the nearby mountains.

Late afternoon.

Next day dawned brilliantly fine. A great opportunity to on the steamer Simplon for a hop on hop off day.

Fire works barges set out

SS Simplon departing Geneva

The immaculate steam engines look brand new.

Everything about the Simplon was in perfect condition
as shown by the ship's bell.

Many expensive residences line both sides of the lake in both
Switzerland and France.

The ship stopped at number of town along the way. Our main destination was the lovely medieval town of Yvoire in France. This can be seen in my blog on France from an earlier posting.

After a great visit to Yvoire it was time to board the ferry and head off back to Geneva, slowly though.

Versoix, one of the stops on the way back down the lake.

We didn't get off at Versoix but chose to stop off at Nyon further down the lake. It looked promising on the way up in the morning.

Nyon

Nyon with the canton flag flying over the castle.

Nyon

Just sailing in to Geneva one was fortunate that the clouds had parted enough so we could see Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc from Lake Geneva

After getting off the Simplon we had time to get back to the hotel for an hour before finding a restaurant before heading back to the lake front for the fireworks to end the Summer festival. We have seen fire works shows before but this was something different! Set to 5 different Italian Opera themes this was spell binding. At one point the program was stopped at the end of one scene to let the smoke clear. Words can not adequately describe this spectacle.

The final part of the finale consisted of the full length of the waterfront (about 1.5 km long) exploding into a continuous show of light and deafening sound for a full 5 minutes. You haven't seen a decent fireworks display until you have been the end of the Summer Festival in Geneva!

Geneva is the headquarters for the Red Cross and also has United Nations offices here as well.

The big chair

Red Cross HQ and museum.



Meeting room at the United Nations, Geneva.

Geneva from a church tower.

After a few busy days in Geneva our next stop was back to Abu Dhabi for 2 days before the move to China. Today I have asked my travel agent to book us out of here to Kuala Lumpur then on to Brisbane before heading back to New Zealand. Our overseas adventures are fast fast drawing to a close. By the time we finally get back home, it will be nearly seven years since we left on our second OE!